IronPigs dog Champ catching up on rest

Champ, back home with the IronPigs after a 5-day ordeal, has been busy resting and soaking up attention that the publicity over his disappearance, and eventual return, has brought.

The friendly 4-year-old German shepherd mix, owned by IronPigs director of merchandising Janine Kurpiel, who brings him to work at her office inside the IronPigs' clubhouse store, made news last week when he went missing from Coca-Cola Park during a fireworks display.

He was eventually discovered wandering close to Coca-Cola Park last Wednesday.

Since then, Champ has been catching up on his sleep.

"We both feel asleep early the other night and slept about 13 hours," said Kurpiel this past weekend while working at the Park with Champ by her side. "He's been resting a lot."

Champ has also been getting visits, like Saturday's meeting with Terry and Lori Trumbower of Allentown, who stopped by Coca-Cola Park to greet the dog after helping the search efforts. That's the Trumbowers pictured above on Saturday.

"They were the first people to call and offer to help when they heard the news," said Kurpiel. "And they called every day to talk to me."

"We're just happy she's back home," said Lori.

Kurpiel said that the publicity created by Internet stories on The Morning Call Web site about Champ prompted calls from as far away as North Carolina and Baltimore with people offering their prayers and tips for searching for lost dogs.

Since Champ's return, Kurpiel has even had a proclaimed pet communicator in New York phone in and tell her that Champ had been out in the wild and even met a girlfriend on his travels.

Kurpiel said she has been touched by all the well-wishers, including a group of first-graders at St. Elizabeth Regional school in Whitehall, who wrote letters to her and Champ to say how happy they are that the two are reunited.